FACTS ABOUT PLANTS

Facts About Plants

• A notch in a tree will remain the same distance from the ground as the tree grows.
• Banana oil is made from petroleum.
• 84% of a raw apple and 96% of a raw cucumber is water.
• The largest single flower is the Rafflesia or “corpse flower”. They are generally 3 feet in diameter with the record being 42 inches.
• Onions contain a mild antibiotic that fights infections, soothes burns, tames bee stings and relieves the itch of athletes foot.
• Quinine, one of the most important drugs known to man, is obtained from the dried bark of an evergreen tree native to South America.
• The rose family of plants, in addition to flowers, gives us apples, pears, plums, cherries, almonds, peaches and apricots.
• No species of wild plant produces a flower or blossom that is absolutely black, and so far, none has been developed artificially.
• Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
• The bright orange color of carrots tell you they are an excellent source of Vitamin A which is important for good eyesight, especially at night. Vitamin A helps your body fight infection, and keeps your skin and hair healthy.
• A plant’s stem appears and grows upward shortly after the primary root appears. It continues to grow above ground level.
• Water and minerals flow upward through the roots into the stem of the plant and then into the leaves of the plant.
• Pistils have three parts – the stigma, the style, and the ovary.
• Petals are usually colorful, and they attract insects and birds that help with pollination.
• Fruit is really the part of a flower in which seeds grow. Cherries, apples, and even milkweed pods are fruit.
• Buds are small swellings on a plant from which a shoot, leaf, or flower usually develops.
• The primary root is the first thing to sprout from a seed, and it grows downward.
• A seed contains its own food supply, which helps the sprouting plant as it begins its new life.
• Roots are covered with root hairs that absorb water and minerals.
• Grapes and clematis have stems that climb with tendrils, which hold onto a surface, as the stems get longer.

Facts About Plants

Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams.
The California redwood – coast redwood and giant sequoia – are the tallest and largest living organism in the world.
One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400 cans of pop.
Nutmeg is extremely poisonous if injected intravenously.
The Pitcher-plant is a carnivorous plant, a meat eater. Carnivorous plants usually live in nitrogen poor soils. They have ‘learned’ to augment the inadequate nitrogen available in the soil by capturing and consuming insects!
40% of prescripition drugs dispensed in the U.S. have active ingredients derived from plants, animals or microorganisms, many of them from forests.
The hurricane plant has holes in its leaves, which keep it from being destroyed by wind.
The canopy of a rainforest is so thick, only one percent of sunlight reaches the ground.
A banana is about 75 percent water.
A single large tree can release up to 400 gallons of water into the atmosphere each day.
Rafflesia flowers attract pollinating flies by looking and smelling like rotten meat.
One acre of trees absorbs enough carbon dioxide per year to match that emitted by driving a car 26,000 miles.
The saguaro cactus of the Arizona Desert grows less than one inch in it’s first 10 years.
In the 1800’s an Eggplant was known as a “mad apple” and believed to be poisonous.
One cord of wood can make 7 and a half million toothpicks.